CookUnity Reviews 2024: Is This Chef-Made Meal Affordable?

About CookUnity

Restaurant-quality meals from award-winning chefs, CookUnity is a meal delivery service that you can subscribe to, offering various global cuisines, seasonal meals, and local specialties. It is a chef-to-consumer platform connecting talented chefs who cook small-batch meals for busy people who love good quality food. 

The menu items are varied, brought over by the chefs from their own personal recipes or restaurants. You can eat foods like roasted salmon, BBQ chicken with Mac n Cheese, and sweet and sour chili shrimp bowl. 

Some chefs even make their own sauces like Pomodoro sauce, creamy sesame dressing, truffle cheese sauce, and lemon tahini dressing; you can have these cold or choose to heat the sauces as an option.  

The food is cooked in a kitchen that CookUnity customized for the chefs. The kitchens are fully stocked with all a chef may need, including cleaning services, so the chefs can focus fully on creating your meals. 

CookUnity meals arrive fully cooked; you just need to warm the meal up. You can get a variety of foods that include vegetarian or vegan options. The meals are well-balanced with carbohydrates, fat, and protein to help keep you nourished.

CookUnity food is delivered weekly, and you now have three options: leave with the doorman, person-to-person delivery, or leave at your door.   

The CookUnity reviews have included many raves from single men, full-time working moms, and people who live in small towns. Read on for the CookUnity review of 2024. 

How Does CookUnity Work?

Choose A Plan

You can choose how many meal plans you want from four, six, eight, twelve, or sixteen meals per week. You can start with a small meal plan and upgrade as needed. If you are ordering for a whole family, you can choose larger meal plans to accommodate your family.  

Choose Weekly Meals

You can choose your delicious meals up to two weeks in advance while the menu is available. If choosing your meals is too daunting, you can skip meal planning and allow CookUnity to plan your meals based on your food preferences. 

Get Chef-Curated Meals Delivered 

The meal delivery is easy to set up and can be set to be delivered weekly. You get your meals chilled and refrigerated. In your profile, you can choose the delivery day and time, and you can have the meals left with the doorman, delivered to you at your door, or left at your door. Other meal kits may not have such specific delivery options. 

You will receive your food in an insulated box chilled with ice packs. Once you are done with the box, you may recycle it and reuse the ice packs. 

Heat, Plate, And Eat

You can heat the food in its meal tray, and each meal will have simple heating instructions on the sleeve. Alternatively, you can scan the meal’s QR code for instructions. Once heated, you simply place it on a plate and enjoy it. 

Who Should Use CookUnity?

Of all the meal delivery services, CookUnity is a meal delivery service that provides individual meals. It is unique in the amount of diversity offered among the menu items. 

This type of variety can make your meal plan journey fun and can be very useful to anyone who enjoys delicious food but may not have the time to shop, prepare vegetables, and cook. It can also be for anyone who may not have the cooking skills to make creative dishes. 

Meal prep at home is declining in the USA^[1] as American society and its culture change due to changing demographics. Single people, workaholics, the elderly, or those who hate to cook or refuse to do so will find a service like CookUtility very useful in their lifestyle. By 2034, the elderly are expected to outnumber children^[2] for the first time, after which that trend will continue. 

By 2050, most Americans will be non-white for the first time, adding a diversity of cuisine consumed as ethnic diversity continues.^[3] This will only increase the number of those looking for the customized preparations offered by companies like CookUnity. Their Global Cuisines menu is already poised to cater to ethnic diversity.

Even now, the meal options of CookUnity are varied enough to accommodate people with dietary preferences and restrictions; it also comes with vegetarian or vegan options.  

As mentioned before, if you want to extend the meal service to feed even a large family, you may choose the larger packages to accommodate everyone. 

Feature Product & Coupon

How Much Does CookUnity Cost? 

Depending on how many meals you want, you have a few options. Ordering in volume offers discounts per meal. In such orders, it breaks down to the more meals per week, the more affordable the price for each meal. CookUnity’s lowest price point is the sixteen-meal option at $11.09 per meal. 

• Four meals at $13.59
• Six meals at $12.29
• Eight meals at $11.69
• Twelve meals at $11.19
• Sixteen meals at $11.09

Pros

• Quality ingredients.
• Menu options. 
• Skilled chefs. 
• You can order via the app. 

Cons

• Not available in all 50 US states.
• May not be palatable for young children.
• Some dishes may not be allergen-free.
• May be expensive for some.

CookUnity Review

Recipe Variety 

The recipes include various options, from simple meals like pizza to more elaborate meals like lemongrass marinated-flank steak, which is definitely a not-so-simple meat meal. 

Some options are from global cuisines like Middle Eastern shawarma spices, Israeli couscous, Korean BBQ beef, and Indian dishes like Malabar shrimp biryani, to name a few.

You also have access to seasonal meals and even specialties by local chefs. Some seasonal foods indicate the nutrient content and if it’s considered high in fat or calories. 

The menu options can be filtered by location; east coast, west coast, Texas, and midwest. The menu options and the chef making that meal are highlighted within those filters. 

Choosing Meals

When you are ready to choose your meals for the week, you can filter down the recipe choices even further so that the main ingredient can be seafood, meat, poultry, vegan, or vegetarian. 

If you have restrictions, you can choose meals less than 600 calories, low carb, gluten-free, dairy-free, and low sodium. 

A more modern feature is the meal option tailored toward more recent trending diets like the keto or paleo diet. The keto diet^[4] is usually higher in protein and fat and low in carbs. 

The paleo diet^[5] usually includes meals humans are theorized to have eaten in the Paleolithic era–during the hunter/gatherer days of our history. As such, it restricts grains, dairy products, refined foods, and sugars, e.g., starches. It’s mainly grass-fed and pasture-raised meats, along with vegetables, fruits, fungi, roots, and nuts.

Nutritional Value

Each meal is unique and may vary widely in nutrients. Fortunately, you can get nutritional information on the website when you click on the photo of the meal; you can see all the nutritional information about the meal. Or, when you receive the actual meal, you can scan the QR code for nutritional information. 

When you look at a meal through the website, you will see the photo of the chef, with a meal description, main specifications with small graphics, ingredient list, and nutrition information in grams with portion size, calories, carbs, fat, protein, saturated fat, sugars, fiber, and sodium. This is a wealth of details that underscores the brand’s transparency policy. 

The Cooking Process

Meals are cooked by award-winning chefs in fully equipped, customized kitchens that are provided and serviced by CookUnity. The meals are cooked in small batches with the freshest ingredients; the chefs are provided with a full range of support by CookUnity to focus on the meals fully. 

CookUnity also aims to connect local farmers to chefs so they can serve each meal with the best ingredients available. 

On the website, along with the nutrition information, you will also find the oven or microwave heating instructions. On the meal trays, you will have a label with a QR code that will allow you to scan and get quick access to the heating instructions. 

Flavor, Freshness & Quality

Each chef’s specialty adds to CookUnity’s uniqueness compared to the other meal delivery companies. Unlike those other services, CookUnity allows each chef to bring their restaurant-quality dishes imbued with their creativity and a meal selection from their restaurant menus.

Chefs can bring a taste of their unique style without dealing with any of the backend work it takes to manage a restaurant.  

Delivery

Meals are delivered weekly; you can choose the day of delivery, delivery time range, and whether the package should be left with the doorman, delivered to you at your door, or left at the door. 

If you need a break, you can skip meal delivery by logging into your account and selecting that option under the section designated as upcoming deliveries. 

Depending on your location, meals may be delivered via courier in a tote bag or by a national carrier like UPS or FedEx. 

Packaging

If you receive your meal delivery with a tote bag, the bag is insulated and will contain frozen ice packs to help maintain your food cool and fresh. You may return the tote bag with the ice pack or choose to keep it with each delivery. 

If your meal delivery arrives through a national carrier like UPS or FedEx, while you will get an insulated box with frozen ice packs, there isn’t yet a package return program.  CookUnity includes a link on its website to help with recycling the box and ice. As of the writing of this article, however, until they update their site, that page is unavailable. 

Customer Service

You can contact CookUnity in several ways; the website has an easy-to-find link to its support email address [email protected], a frequently asked questions section, and active social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. 

CookUnity is also committed to digital accessibility to ensure that the website is accessible and functional for all of its customers by providing free assistive technology for people with physical disabilities. 

You also have access to an account you can log into for subscription information, pause your subscription, be a part of the referral program, and place your orders as far as two weeks in advance. 

Customer Reviews

I want to say that your Crispy Chicken Milanese was among the most satisfying, enjoyable meals I ever had in my life. I realize this sounds like an hyperbole, but I am not at all a foodie. I would not let my partner talk after I finished your meal because I just wanted to sit with the memory of that taste. It really was that good.

Howard

‘I couldn’t be more pleased with CookUnity. The meals are delicious, fresh, and the perfect portion. I look forward to coming home after a long work day and having restaurant quality meals in minutes. Thank You.’I couldn’t be more pleased with CookUnity. The meals are delicious, fresh, and the perfect portion. I look forward to coming home after a long work day and having restaurant quality meals in minutes. Thank You.

Christine

I truly love the service and have been greatly enjoying the amazing easy meals in my life. As a mom of young twins working full-time from home during the pandemic – and who has a different eating preference than everyone else in the house – it has really saved me!

Joslyn

Thanks for making our lives easier – we live in a small town with every fast-food place out there, but very little as far as good healthy choices. You are just what we need.

Annette

Your meals are a revelation in prepared food for a single man. Could not be more pleased with the food its outstanding.

David

Alternatives To CookUnity

Final Thought: Is CookUnity Worth Trying?

CookUnity is a good choice as a meal delivery service. It provides quality ingredients, various menu items to choose from, and the potential to lose weight if lighter meals are chosen.

You can choose your own meal plan or have CookUnity choose your delicious meal based on your preferences. Its ease of use and low meal price make CookUnity a good choice among the many available meal delivery services. 

People usually choose a meal delivery service because they may have busy lifestyles, don’t want to cook, don’t see sense in cooking for one person, or simply want someone else to take care of that task for them. The affordable price per meal can really make this service available for anyone. 

Although CookUnity meals tend to be made as efficiently as possible, some extra food may sometimes be left over. As a way to strengthen community ties and minimize food waste, CookUnity has a partnership with New York City’s food bank. This indicates that CookUnity is a company that is environmentally and socially conscious. 

Frequently Asked Questions

---